


The Lounge

by Mooncake_T



Category: Discord Murder Party (Podcast)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25664197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mooncake_T/pseuds/Mooncake_T
Summary: Not everyone is always needed to play the games. Sometimes, a few are left in the lounge.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

_ Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.  _

Percy had been tapping the end of his pencil on a blank page for a few minutes now. It seemed to be on beat with a song in his head. Grace had noticed, but wasn’t going to mention it. She was too busy in her own head to really care.

“That’s a pretty little tune there, Grace,” he said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“What?”

“That song you were singin’. It was pretty.”

“I was not singing.”

“Well, uh, hummin’ then.”

“I was not humming either.”

“Well. Someone was. And it ain’t me.”

“Which only leaves me," she sighed. "I  _ suppose _ I could have been humming without realizing it, though I highly doubt it.”

Percy paused, long enough for Grace to assume the conversation had ended. She was about to leave when he spoke up again, in a softer tone.

“Did your parents ever sing you lullabies?”

“If I recall correctly, yes. They did. When I was very young.”

“Do you remember them?”

“I am going to assume that you are referring to the lullabies and not my parents.”

“Y-yes, that’s... What I meant.”

“In that case, no. I don’t." It was the truth, mostly. She didn’t feel like sharing the few intact memories of them she had, though.

She got up and turned to leave as if nothing had happened, but Percy could still hear her humming that song, if a little quieter now, like she was self-conscious of it, but still didn’t realize she was doing it.

" Maybe one day you'll remember." He said.

She paused before leaving the room.

"Perhaps."


	2. Juice Box Junior

Thorin was SO mad! Emmy left them alone- AGAIN! They were taking a nap, (“Because sleep is very important for growing kids, Thorin. You need it if you want to grow big and strong, sweetie.”) and she said she’d be there when they woke up. But she wasn’t! She was gone again, probably off playing a game with all the other people. Thorin had walked around the whole entire lounge, and then walked around it AGAIN just to make sure. No one was anywhere! They were alone.

And since no one was around to stop them, Thorin had decided that the best way to get back at Emmy would be to drink  _ all _ of the juice boxes. Then she wouldn’t be able to share one with them when she got back. Maybe that would keep her from leaving them alone again.

So Thorin had taken up a place at the big table in the middle of the lounge- the one with the little fridge behind it where the juice boxes were- and started drinking as many as they could as they sulked. But then Thorin heard the door behind them opening. Still sipping from their juice box, Thorin turned to see who had apparently been hiding from them. (They must have been, there was no other reason for someone not to come out while he was calling and calling for anyone who might still be in the lounge for AT LEAST 10 minutes!) It was Junior. He was one of the nicer people to Thorin, not that there was much competition, which mostly meant that he didn’t complain when Thorin was around.

Still, he hadn’t come out when Thorin was looking for people, so they were mad at him too!

Junior walked toward the table, rubbing at his eyes, and somehow didn’t see Thorin until he was practically right behind them. “Oh! Thorin! I-uh-didn’t see you there. What, um, _ are _ you doing here? Exactly?” Thorin didn’t answer, of course, because why would they when they were mad at Junior for not coming out earlier? If Junior could ignore them, then they could ignore him right back. “Uh, Thorin? Are you alright?” Thorin took a bi-i-ig sip of their juice box. Just to show Junior that he was being ignored. It didn’t have the effect Thorin was hoping for, though, since it was still pretty full, and didn’t make the slurpy sound they wanted. “Thorin, you gotta tell me what’s wrong. We can’t help you if we don’t know what’s wrong.” Thorin spun their stool so they were facing away from Junior, who finally noticed they were the only ones in the room. “Wait. Did Murder God take everyone for a game? She left you here?”

Thorin knew what Emmy did, they didn’t need Junior to point it out and remind them, AGAIN. But when he said it, he almost sounded...sad? Why would HE be sad? Emmy always played with him! Although, all the grown-ups fought with Emmy a lot, like they didn’t want to play with her, even though she played AWESOME games! Well, most of the grown-ups anyway… Did Junior actually  _ like _ playing with Emmy? Was he sad that she left him in the lounge while she went and played with all the others, too?

But Emmy  _ loved _ playing with them! She played with them all the time! More often than she did with Thorin! Even though they all yelled at her! Thorin never yelled at her- yelling was mean! They were mean to her! And she promised THORIN that they’d never play alone again! Not them! Some promise-keeper she was. Maybe Thorin was madder at Emmy than Junior. 

“YES!” They spun back around to face Junior. “She left me here, all alone, and went to play with everyone else! Like she always does! She never wants to play with me, ever, anymore, even though she said she’d always play with me.” They angrily took another gulp from their juice box.

“She didn’t tell you she was going?” Junior asked, taking the seat next to Thorin and turning to face them.

“NO. If she did I would have asked to go with her and I wouldn’t be here! I’d be playing with Emmy like she said we would.”

“That doesn’t sound like something a good friend would do.”

“That’s because it’s NOT!” Thorin slurped up the rest of the juice box and thumped the empty carton on the counter.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Junior asked cautiously, then added to himself, “Not sure what I’d be helping with exactly, but I can try.”

“No,” they responded grumpily.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m mad at you too!”  
“Mad at me? Why are you mad at me?”

“Because you were hiding!” Thorin exclaimed.

“When? Was I hiding?”

“Just now! I spent, like, half an hour looking for anybody around here and you never came out!”

“Oh. Sorry. I was, just, taking a nap. I guess I can be a pretty heavy sleeper sometimes, I probably didn’t hear you.” Thorin grumbled and went behind the counter to retrieve another juice box.

Junior drummed his fingers on the tabletop for a few seconds before awkwardly commenting, “Thats’ a lot of juice boxes you’ve drank,” motioning at the four empty cartons on the counter.

“Emmy can’t have any when she gets back if I drink them all now,” Thorin paused to say.

“Oh. Revenge, I see. Would you like some help?” Junior asked with a devious smirk on his face. Thorin arched their eyebrow at him. Seeing their confusion, Junior was quick to explain his plan. “I can drink some juice boxes too, so you don’t have to do it all yourself. And -get this- and, they’ll be gone faster, in case she gets back sooner.”

Thorin squinted at Junior. “Why would you help me?” They asked.

“I’ll take any chance to be a minor annoyance to Murder God at the moment, beleive me. I’m kind of mad at her right now too.” He said as he walked around to the other side of the table.

“Why? She plays with you guys ALL THE TIME.”

“Well, see, we don’t really  _ like _ the games that she makes us play,” he explained, not waiting for Thorin to actually answer the question before grabbing a juice box for himself.

“At least she plays with you. She told me we’d get to play all the time and we don't’! It’s not fair!”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Junior sighed. He looked up, and seeing Thorin staring at him and making quite a confused face quickly asked, “Do you need another juice box?”

Thorin blinked at Junior before answering, “Yes please!” Junior grabbed one, and Thorin saw him make a weird face. It was probably just because he was surprised at how fast Thorin could drink them.

Sipping from the new juice box, Thorin tried to decipher what Junior meant. Why would it be a  _ good _ thing for Emmy not to play with them? That was, like, the whole point of them being here! This place sucked, but getting to play with Emmy made it better - worth being there, really - but she wasn’t even playing with them like she’d promised to, which made it all suck more!

“How about we have a race to see who can finish their juice box first?” Junior suggested.

“OoO yeah! I’m the best at races! And the fastest juice-drinker in the world!”

“Oh yeah? I guess we’ll have to see huh? Ready… Set… GO!” They both drank as fast as they could, but Thorin won, of course. They kept drinking juices, and Junior kept coming up with fun ways to do it, and competitions that Thorin won almost every time, until Emmy got back with the others.

Thorin had almost forgotten that they were mad at Emmy, they were having so much fun with Junior, but remembered when she asked him, “Thorin! Sweetie, what are you doing here? I thought you were taking a nap?”

All of their righteous anger came back and they jumped off of the stool to stand in front of her, and shouted, “You left me all alone! I came out here looking for you and it was just Junior here!”

“Oh. Well, I really thought you were going to have a longer nap. But I’m here now! And you’re awake! So we can play now!”

Thorin wanted to stay mad. They wanted to stay mad SO MUCH. Emmy deserved it after leaving them there, but they also really wanted to play with her. They missed her while she was gone. She was their best friend, after all, even if she wasn’t a very good best friend sometimes. “Are you sure?” they asked. “And you won’t leave without telling me next time?”

“Of course sweetie. I promise.” 

“No! You have to DOUBLE promise! Double PINKY promise!” Thorin shouted and held their pinky out.

Emmy looked shocked at their outburst, but held her pinky out too. “Alright. I double pinky promise.”

“Good,” Thorin huffed. They turned and saw Junior whispering with the others.

“How about we play dress-up? It's your favorite, and I have the perfect glittery purple dress just for you.”  
Well. She _did_ double pinky promise to tell them next time she left. And Thorin did _really_ like dress-up. But they had something to tell her. “We drank all the juice boxes, though.”

Of course, Thorin hadn’t seen how many juice boxes were left, but they and Junior had drank so many together, there probably weren’t many left, if any. They glanced back at Junior, who had been watching them talk with Emmy, but he only met their eyes for a second before turning away and fiddling with a napkin. “Well that’s alright Thorin, I can just make more remember?”

“Oh. Right.” They felt a bit silly for forgetting that. Especially when she was always making things for them to play with. They looked up at her, and found her smirking, but not at them. She was looking at Junior, who was still playing with the napkins. Weird. “Let’s go then!”

“Of course,” she said with a smile. She lifted her hand and snapped them both away.

As soon as they were gone Junior buried his face in his arms with a groan as the rest of the awakened burst out laughing. “How?” Vincent managed to get through his laughs. “How did you forget we never run out of drinks here? That’s like this place’s whole thing! Endless drinks!”

“I don’t know,” Junior mumbled. “At least I kept Thorin happy, right? Isn’t that important?”  
“Of course. Keeping the annoying child happy is important now.” said Grace. “Whatever,” she sighed, though she was still smiling. “Just don’t expect me to help.”

“Nobody’s expecting ya to, Grace. Anyway. Drinks?”


	3. Games & Girlfriends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imma be honest, I completely forgot I made this at all after the first week of school. But I had this almost done so I finished it up and here you go.

In the new living/gaming room, Tommy sat on the sofa, staring intensely at the game of Mario Kart he was playing on the tv. So intensely, he almost missed Hailey popping her head in through the door. “Ay, you’re still here! I’m not all alone in this cruel world afta’ all,” she said coming in enough to see the screen. She stood there watching him finish his third lap in Mute City. 

Once he crossed the finish line he sat back with a sigh. “Third.”

“Two hundred cc?”

“Yeah. It’s a nice challenge.”

“‘Specially once ya get the hang of braking.”

“Yeah. Took me long enough to figure that out,” he grumbled. “Wanna jump in?”

“Yeah sure, we have some time ta’ kill before the others get back from the games.”

“Murder God came by?” he asked, starting to switch to a multiplayer game.

“Yeah. Magically appeared, did her thing, dragged everyone else in the lounge off. By the way, why’re you playing on that? Bit outdated isn’t it?”

“The Wii U? It’s the newest console that I’m aware of.”

“Ah, you’re from 2016 right? Switch wasn’t even announced yet then, huh?”

“Switch? That’s the new nintendo console, right? Isn’t that just a handheld?”

Instead of answering his question, Hailey started backing out of the room. “Ohoho, lemme go grab mine, you’re gonna love it,” He heard her running down the hall as soon as she was out of sight. Tommy quit Mario Kart, and turned off the “outdated” console while he waited.

When Hailey came running back in she threw what was presumably her switch and a controller on the couch next to Tommy. “Go ahead an’ turn Mario Kart on. Power button’s on the top left,” she said as she started messing with a small box and the wires behind the tv. 

He found the power button and was able to start Mario Kart 8 Deluxe pretty quickly. Good old Nintendo and their consistent buttons. “Not even a mario Kart 9? They just slapped a Deluxe at the end of it?”

“I mean they added a few things, but, yeah. It is pretty much the same as regular Mario Kart 8.” she replied, finishing what she was doing behind the tv. “The DLC is part of the base game, at least, so that’s nice.”She held her hand out to Tommy. “Now lemme see that.” He handed it over and picked up the controller next to him instead. It was identical to the Wii U controller, except for the logo. “Hey!” she wiggles the switch in his face to get his attention. “Watch this.” She turned around and put it into what she had been setting up, and pulled the sides up, disattaching them from the console itself. Mario Kart disappeared from the Switch’s screen, and reappeared on the tv.

“Oh, wow. It's a handheld and a console?”

“Yup! Pretty great, huh? Wanna do teams?”

“I’m cool with whatever.”

“Even random maps?” She sat on the floor with her elbows on the couch behind her.

“Yeah.”

“‘Aight then.”

“So the controller parts just come off?” he asked as they chose their characters (Koopa for him, Bowser for Hailey)

“They’re called joy-cons, and yeah. Pop right off. Makes it easy to switch back and forth real quick. Doesn’t even have to be in the dock, just pop ‘em off and play.”

The first map appeared onscreen with the signature jingle, and was met with both cheering and groaning.

“Rainbow road first? Couldn’t it have at least been second?” Tommy complained.

“What’re you talking about? I love Rainbow Road!”

“This one’s not as bad as the other ones, I’ll give it that. It’s just this one turn in the beginning that’s super annoying.”

“Maybe try some different wheels next time. Up your handling a bit.”

A hum of acknowledgement was Tommy’s only response as the countdown began. He had a good start, despite falling off the map on the first turn, until a computer managed to hit him with a green shell, and knocked him off of the map again. “Oh come on! Green! Not even red! How’d he manage that!” Hailey just chuckled as she passed him. After that, Hailey stayed in first place until the final stretch of the last lap, when Tommy pulled in front with triple mushrooms. 

“Dang. Nice comeback, dude.”

“You were in first like, the whole time! I just got lucky at the end.” the screen went dark as it loaded the next map. “By the way, if you like rainbow road, what  _ is _ your least favorite map?”

“It’s uh-” the next map loaded, and Hailey ended that thought with a groan. “This one.”

“Neo Bowser City?”

“Yes! There’re so many hard turns, and half of them don’t even have railings or anything to keep ya from falling off!”

“Rainbow road didn’t have like any railings at all.”

“It also doesn’t have a million u-turns.” she scowled at the tv. She kept the scowl almost the entire race, too, even though she never fell below 5th place. Tommy, on the other hand, managed to stay in the top 3 the whole time, and only fell off the course once during his first lap, on a turn that ended up sharper than he’d expected.

“Alright, I can see why you don’t like that map.”

“I know right?” Hailey said, pushing herself up onto the couch so that she was sitting next to Tommy.

“Are there any other noteworthy games that come out?” he asked as they waited.

She thought for a moment, and then said, “There was this one, called Stardew Valley, that made its way around for a bit. Kinda ‘slice of life-y’ kind of game. Played it a couple times with Kate, but wasn’t really my style. Got pretty repetitive after a bit.”

“Sounds like something Angalena would’ve liked. She loved those kinds of games. Like Animal Crossing”

“Who’s Angalena?”

“Oh, uh, she was my girlfriend.”

Hailey paused the game. “Girlfriend? I didn’t know you had a girlfriend!” She suddenly shifted so she was sitting cross-legged facing Tommy and leaned in, getting in his face and asked, “Have you been trying to hide that?” 

“N-no, no I haven’t, it just doesn’t come up that much.” In fact, it hadn’t come up at all since the Lotus Eater, and Hailey wasn’t around for that. Even before then, he hadn’t talked much about Angalena since his awakening.

“Well it came up now!” She poked his shoulder and said insistently, “Tell me about her! I wanna know ‘bout my buddy’s gal!”

“Well, she’s super nice, and sweet, and we looked out for each other. And played games, when we could.”

Hailey looked at him expectantly. “And?”

“And?”

“And what else! Come on dude!” She grabbed his shoulder and shook him a bit. “There’s gotta be more to it than that! When’d you meet- What’s her favorite color- Heck! What’s her favorite dinosaur! You gotta give me more than that man!” He didn’t realize this was something Hailey would get so riled up about.

“Oh. Um. Well we met in elementary school,” he started slowly. “And we stuck together in middle school. That’s when we really got to know each other. I stayed with her after her accident, and then she stayed with me whenever she could while I was in the hospital. Then we went to the same high school, and the same college.” He chuckled, “We actually lived together our last year there, and moved into a better apartment after. Well, she moved in more than me. I was in the hospital a lot after we graduated. And my parents wanted me to stay with them a lot too. But I stayed with Angalena as much as I could. And she visited me in the hospital as much as she could. That’s pretty much how we did it for a while. Then Murder God took me.”

Tommy looked at Hailey. She looked a bit stunned, which was weird. Usually she had some sort of comeback to everything anyone said to her. “Wow. You two were tight weren't cha? Like me an’ Kate.” She slung an arm around Tommy and squeezed him. “It probably doesn’t mean much coming from me, but, I’m sorry dude. You should’ve gotten a chance to be with her.”

He gave her arm a little squeeze. “Hailey, that means a  _ lot _ coming from you.” 

She squeezed him again, almost a bit too hard, before sitting back and staring at the ‘ceiling’, in thought. It was a lot Tommy just dumped on her, wasn’t it?

Then her face screwed up and she started shaking her head, “Wait, wait, wait. You were in the hospital a whole bunch? Is that why MG calls you ‘cancer arms’?”

He sighed, “Yeah, pretty much.”

“That’s a bit rude don’t ya think? How ‘bout I sock her next time I see her for you?”

“I would highly recommend against it,” He responded quickly. “She doesn’t call me that much anymore anyway, it’s fine.”

She squinted at him, then shrugged. “If you’re sure. Lemme know if you change your mind though, ‘ight?”

“Sure,” he laughed. He looked back at the abandoned Mario Kart game. He frowned at it for a moment before turning back to Hailey. “How about you show me that Stardew Mountain game?”

She laughed. “Stardew  _ Valley _ . Ya, sure. I don’t like this course anyway.”


	4. Bartender

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this was written before pt. 1 of the finale and I was worried I didn't get people right, but after watching.  
> I think I got them right.

Junior was sitting in the middle of the lounge, waiting for a signal. Murder God had left already, with everyone else, in a sour mood. Apparently she had been looking forward to getting Vincent in a game today, but he was in his room with a hangover. Junior didn’t envy everyone else.

_ Knock knock. _

There it was.

“She’s gone, you can come out now,” he called. Vincent opened the door and immediately made a beeline for the counter with the fridge under it. “You’re not gonna be able to pull that off again anytime soon you know.” 

“Yeah, I know. Just needed a break today. Thanks for covering for me.”

“Sure, anytime. She’s not going to be happy when she gets back though.”

“Is she ever?”

“Fair point.” Vincent pulled out a bottle from under the counter and went to sit next to Junior, but Junior stood up saying, “Dude, at least let me make you something. You can’t drink straight whiskey  _ all _ the time.”

“Nah, I’m fine. Tastes great,” he took a sip as if to prove it. “Come sit back down.”

Junior started pulling things out of the fridge. “Not until you let me make you something nicer to drink.”

“Don’t think you’re leaving me much choice. I’m drinking this ‘till you’re done though,” he said, taking another swig.   
“That’s fine, this won’t take long.”

As Junior mixed ingredients together Vincent asked, “Where’d you learn?”

“I was a bartender for a bit before Muder God got me. Only for a couple months, but I learned a few things.” He slid a cup across to Vincent. “Bon appetit!”

“Pretty sure ‘bon appetit’ is specifically for food,” he said.

“Well,” Junior chuckled, “ I didn’t really have anything better to say. I mean, as far as I know there’s nothing like ‘bon appetit’ to say for drinks.”

“You got me there.” He glared at the cup. “What is this anyway?”   
“Oh, uh, it’s one of my favorites. Never got to drink them much, being the bartender and all, but a lot of people ordered them, and they were really good the few times I did get to try them.”

He took another sip. “It’s really sweet.”

“Well, I guess I do kind of have a bit of a sweet tooth, don’t I? I - I just thought it might be a nice change of pace, since you’re always drinking things straight out of the bottle and -  _ and don’t put the whiskey in it Vincent! _ ”

He managed to pull the bottle away before Vincent could pour any into the cup. "Not even a little bit?" Vincent asked with a smile that said he knew there was no way he was winning this.

"No," Junior responded firmly. "It messes with the flavor, trust me. I made that mistake, I'm not letting you make it too."

Vincent pushed the glass back across the counter. "You want the rest of this then? Don't think I can handle any more of it."

"Sure, I guess," he said, taking the drink. "Do you want me to make you something else?"

"You could just give me the whiskey back," he smirked.

He earned a rare Junior-glare for his efforts. "I'm making you something else."

Vincent watched Junior pull a few different bottles out and start mixing them together.

“How good would you consider yourself at this?”

“I mean, pretty good? I think? It depends what exactly I’m making but I can usually pull off a lot of things.” He started pouring things in a different cup, before pausing and looking up at Vincent. “Why?”

“Think you could whip something up for Doc?”   
“I mean, I  _ could _ . I probably wouldn’t unless he asked though.”

“It doesn’t need to be fancy. I just feel like he’s just been more distant than usual lately.”   
“He’s always been a bit distant. Just give him some time to get used to all the new people.”

“Its not the new people he’s been distant from, Junior, its us. Doc’s treating the newbies exactly how he’s treated the rest of us when we first woke up, that’s to be expected. But us? It’s like he’s starting to think we don’t need him around as much since we’ve got more people around.”

“To be fair, he probably does think that. Here,” Junior put another cup in front of Vincent. “That’s just how he is. There’s not really anything we can do about it.”   
“Well it’d be nice if he stayed for a whole conversation for once. I know he doesn’t care, but I do. And it’s not like there’s anything better for him to be doing.” He took the cup Junior put in front of him and tasted the new drink. “Not bad.”

“Thought it might be more to your tastes.” He took a sip from his own cup. “Did you call them ‘newbies’?”

“Yeah.”

“You learn that from Tommy?”

“Where else would I’ve learned it?”

Junior shrugged, “Just funny hearing you use gamer language.”   
“Is that actually a thing? I thought Tommy was pulling my leg.”   
“It definitely is a real thing. Seems to be pretty constant too, given the 15 years between me and Tommy. Guess that’s not too surprising though, I mean, how much can video games really fundamentally change?” He finished by taking a long sip of his drink.

Vincent took a smaller sip, and waited for Junior to finish, before asking “Can you show me how to make this?”

“Sure. You wanna try making it for Doc?”   
“Yeah. If nothing else, it’d be a nice gesture.”

“Definitely. Come over here,” he said, pulling out more cups. Vincent finished the rest of his drink and joined Junior behind the counter. “So, this one isn’t exactly a beginners drink, but it’s not too hard to make either. Just make sure nothing gets mixed too fast or else the texture will be off.” He looked at Vincent. “And no whiskey.”

“Not even in mine?” he smirked.

Junior sighed, "Fine. You can put some in yours."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, I was freaking out a bit when Vinny and Grace were having their bit.


	5. Painting Perfect

“Well that was certainly abrupt. She didn’t even let them finish their drinks!” Valencia leaned over to peek inside Yugo’s cup, and sat back with a sigh. 

“It most definitely was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ms. M start a game without showin’ up first.” Valencia glanced around at the rest of the abandoned cups, bottles, and juice boxes. “I suppose the least we can do is put these in the fridge so they keep cool until the others return.”

“Right. That would be polite, wouldn’t it?” He started pushing the drinks around him towards where the fridge was, while Valencia did the same on her side of the table.

They sat across the table from each other- the same places they usually sat for book club- once everything was put away. Percy tried not to stare at Valencia as she sipped her tea. It was lucky she wasn’t taken for this round of games, or else it would have gone cold by the time she got back, which would be a shame. Of course, it wouldn’t really matter, with all the endless drinks and things Ms. M provided, but Percy had caught on to how Valencia hated things going to waste, even here in the void. It was hard not to when he felt the same way. At least Vincent and Grace and Dr. McGillicutty stopped giving him a hard time about it a while ago, and hadn’t brought it up since a bit before Valencia’s-

“Percy? Is there something on your mind?”

“Huh?” He looked up with a start. She looked concerned.

“Is there something-”

“Oh, no, sorry Valencia. I was just thinking.”

“Oh. About what?”

“Thi-ings?” he tried.

“Things?” she repeated.

“Nothin’ important. Just lucky your tea won’t go cold is all.”

“Oh yes, very lucky. I would much prefer to finish this cup instead of making a new one.” She smiled at him. “There is only so much tea one can drink before it gets tiring.”

“Same here.” He gestured with his cup of orange juice and gulped some down. 

“Do you think the others ever get tired of their drinks?”

“I’d say it depends who you’re asking about. I can’t say I’ve seen Tommy or Thorin drink much of anything but juice boxes.”

“I’ll say. I offered to make Thorin a cup of tea one night, but they told me they preferred grape juice before bed!”

“Heh-heh, of course they did. Can’t say I had much of a taste for tea either when I was that age.”

“I always loved a good cup of tea. Before bed, in the morning, with my lunch when I could get it. I even learned how to make several kinds myself, though my parents thought it was frivolous. ‘We have servants to make tea for us,’ is what they said. I find it quite a relaxing task though. And it has come in quite handy here, so I am glad I learned.” She sipped her tea one final time. She kept her cup tilted for just a moment longer than she did when there was more in it.

He finished his orange juice, and asked “Can I put that away for you?”

"If you wouldn’t mind, yes please. Thank you.” He took her cup and his to put in the dishwasher. 

He didn’t sit down when he returned to the table. Instead, he started rubbing the short hair on the back of his neck and said “Hey, Valencia?”

“Yes Percy?”

“I’ve, um. I wanna show you something. If you wouldn’t mind taking a look? You, uh, well, heh. I’d say you don’t have to look if you don’t want to, but I kinda made it specifically for you. With you in mind, I mean. You don’t have to if ya don’t want to, of course, I just thought you might like it,” he trailed off.

“I would love to see what you have made! Anything you create is always delightful.”

“Oh. Well, gosh I’ll go get it then!” He took off and was out of the room before he heard Valencia call after him.

It only occurred to him that he might’ve gotten ahead of himself when he reached his room. His plan was to bring the painting out of his room to the lounge, but he had somehow forgotten the size of the canvas. It would have fit through the door fine, but it was unwieldy at best for one person to move, and he didn’t want to risk banging it on a wall, or ceiling, or doorframe, especially when he just told Valencia he’d show it to her. So, he stood in front of it wondering if it was worth the risk to show her.

Luckily, it seemed he wouldn’t even have to try to move it. Valencia came into his room saying, “I would have just come with you, Percy. It would be much easier than going back and forth several times.” Then the canvas behind Percy caught her eye. “Oh.” She walked forwards, reaching out towards it, but didn’t touch it. From where Percy was, the red of her dress nicely complemented the orange he chose for the sand. “Oh Percy. It’s a terribly good likeness.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when Valencia pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed her face. He waited until she stepped back to stand next to him to say, “I did the best I could. I didn’t have a whole lot to go off of, just whatever you told us about Pravum whenever someone asked, so there’s probably a lot of details wrong.”   
“No, Percy. It’s nearly perfect. It is perfect,” she turned to him, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said as she turned back. To be honest, he was shocked to see her eyes so watery, or even watery at all. She usually had such good control over her emotions and expressions. She examined the painting for a few more minutes, as Percy glanced between them every time she wiped away her tears.

“Would you mind if we moved this to my room?”

“Of course not, I made it for you. I’ll probably need some help moving it though.” 

“I’ll help. Canvases like this are not very heavy, right?”   
“Yeah, they’re just awkward to move around by yourself when they’re so big.” He grabbed one side, and hardly had to gesture at the other before Valencia picked it up the same way he had. He was glad to find that she moved the same speed as him as they carefully maneuvered the painting down the hall and into Valencia’s room. They set it against the wall opposite her bed, and she didn’t notice when Percy left until he came back with tools to hang it up. 

Once it was straight they went back to the lounge where Percy fixed them both up a cup of hot chocolate. “Do you think Vincent is still in his room?” Valencia asked.

“There’s always a chance.”

“I was hoping he would not be, actually. He took the chess set last time to try to teach Thorin how to play. I was thinking maybe we could get it and play a round or two.”

“I doubt I’d be much competition. Never played much.”

“Well you’ll only get better by playing.” She stood and started towards the door. “Let’s go find out.”


	6. The Dishwasher

It was quiet in the lounge. Not “designated quiet hours” quite, but quieter than it usually was when everyone was there. Which made following the sounds of Super Smash Bros to the bar much easier for Ezra. “Hey Hailey! Where’s Junior?”

“Eh? Thought he was in his room.”   
“Nope.”   
“Kitchen?”   
“Checked there.”   
“Pool?”

“Just Tommy.”

“Um. Vincent’s room?” she asked as she paused her game.

“Pretty sure he was asleep when I passed by.”

Hailey thought for a second. “I don’t know of anywhere else he’d be. Maybe ya missed him in the halls or something?”   
“I didn’t hear anyone else going anywhere.”

“He can be surprisingly quiet when he wants to be,” Hailey said with a shrug.   
“Guess it wouldn’t hurt to check again,” he grumbled.

“Are you looking for someone?” Junior asked from the doorway.

“As a matter of fact, I was!” Ezra said with a grin. “Would you happen to know the where-abouts of a Junior No-last-name? Shoulder-length hair, about six foot one,  _ completely _ jacked and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet?”

Junior chuckled. “Well not with my eyes, I haven’t. I’ll let you know next time I’m around a mirror though. And I’m only six foot.”

“I’m rounding up.”

“Where were you?” Hailey interjected. “Ezra said he checked everywhere and couldn’t find you,” 

“With Thorin. I promised I’d play with them earlier.”

“Well you’re done now right?” Ezra asked. He didn’t wait for an answer as he pulled Junior around to the other side of the counter as Hailey. “I’ve been wanting to experiment with something.”

Hailey followed them. “What’s there to experiment with in here?”

“The dishwasher!” Exclaimed Ezra. Hailey just stared at him. “Nobody ever puts soap in it, or starts it - heck, I don’t think it’s even hooked up to any sort of piping - but there’s still always clean dishes in the cupboards!” he explained.

“Wait, wait, wait. Nobody ever starts it? Or puts soap in it?”

“Nope,” Junior answered, “I tried once but it didn’t work. Everything you put in just disappears when you close the door, and reappears all clean in the cupboards.”

“And I thought I was just super unlucky.”

“Percy thought that too for a while. Kept thanking everyone for doing dishes until I showed him what was going on.”

“Good ol’ Perc. Sounds like it’s just void magic to me.”

“Of course it’s void magic,” Ezra said, “But how does it work? Is it actually cleaning dishes or does it just, like, delete them from existence and make new ones? And does it  _ only _ work on dishes? And, probably most importantly, could we SEE this whole thing happen?”

“Well now I want to experiment too.” Hailey looked at the dishwasher with newfound interest.

“Does it really matter? I mean either way, we get clean dishes without having to actually clean the dishes.”   
“No,” Ezra replied. He looked Junior in the eye, “But I’m bored.”

“Ok then,” Junior sighed, but he was smiling. “So how do we actually... Figure all that out?”

“Well I think finding out if it only works on dishes would be easiest - we just need to chuck something that isn’t a dish in there!”   
“I got you,” Hailey said, pulling out a juice box and tossing it to Ezra. He set it on the top rack, closed the door, and immediately opened it again.   
“It’s gone!”

“Wait, seriously?” Junior got closer to the dishwasher. “I didn’t think that would actually do anything.”   
Ezra grinned at him. “Now for the next phase of the experiment. Take all the juice boxes out Hailey!”

“On it!”

“Why?” Junior asked.

“Well, it’s mostly just to test that things actually do reappear after being put in the dishwasher. Good to have defined constants and all that jazz, y’know?.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Here ya go,” Hailey said, handing Junior a juice box to put in. Ezra repeated the test, and looked up at Hailey in anticipation when the dishwasher was empty. She pulled a juice box out of the fridge with a victorious smile.

“Sweet! Let’s try the cups now!” They repeated the same experiments they did with the juice boxes with the cups, “For consistency,” according to Ezra. “Alright. Now I want you two to watch the cupboard when I close the door.”

“Just watch it?” Hailey asked.

“Yup.”   
“Okie dokie, can do.”

“Why are we watching the cupboard?”

“Cause I want to know how things get back to where they’re supposed to be! We know they don’t fly through the air to get there, so either they’re teleporting back, or new ones are coming from somewhere else. And maybe we can see that happening!”   
“Alright. Yeah I can look at a cupboard.”

“Cool,” Ezra gave him a thumbs up. “Ready? Go!” Junior and Hailey waited for the cup to appear, and Ezra made sure it didn’t make its way back into the dishwasher.

“Oh! It’s back!” Hailey exclaimed.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, it was like I blinked and it was there.” Junior nodded in agreement.

“You blinked and it was there, huh?” Ezra muttered. “Okay, let’s do it again. But this time, try not to blink, and if you have to tell each other.”

“‘If’ we have to blink?” Hailey laughed. “I’m pretty sure that’s a ‘when’ for us. I’m not sure how much you have to blink but I think we still do pretty often.”

A bark of laughter was all she got before Ezra tossed the cup into the dishwasher and joined them.

For a few minutes they all stared, calling out when they had to blink so that there was always someone watching the cupboard. They were so focused none of them heard the door open or close, or the footsteps that followed.

“What on earth are you doing?”

All three shouted as they turned around in surprise.

“Doctor McGillicutty! You scared me! Us! You scared us,” Junior stammered out.

“We’re doing science,” Ezra picked up. 

“By staring at a cupboard?”   
“Yes?” Hailey answered.

Ezra looked back to where they were watching. “Dang it! It’s back!” Junior and Hailey confirmed this for themselves with disappointment.

“Do I even want to know what kind of ‘science’ it is that you three are doing?”

“Trying to figure out how the dishwasher works,” Hailey sighed. She held her breath for a moment before tentatively continuing, “Say, you’re a man of science, aintcha? Wanna join?”

Doctor McGilicutty looked down his nose at her. “No thank you. I have my own business to attend to. I simply wanted a drink before I continued.”

“Eh. Worth a shot,” she shrugged. Junior handed the doctor the cup they had been watching for, just to save them all the difficulty of trying to move around each other.

“Ah, thank you Junior. Well, I’ll be on my way then,” he said with a nod. 

The three watched him until the door closed behind him. “He didn’t take a drink,” Ezra pointed out. 

“He probably has something stashed in his room,” Junior replied. “Vincent does, and I’m pretty sure Grace does too.”

“Right. Well, back to the dishwasher, I think we watched long enough to say that things won’t reappear if someone is watching. And it’s probably safe to assume that any dish we put in there will work the same way. So for our next test, I say we try other things. The juice boxes worked, so lets try the other drinks and go from there.” Junior and Hailey muttered agreement, and they went about gathering as many different drinks they could find. Junior even made a drink to test. 

They eventually moved on to other items. Ezra managed to swipe a few of Percy’s paintbrushes, Hailey snuck a controller out of the gaming room, and Junior brought the safety ring from the pool. It took some back and forth, but they got the results they wanted before someone noticed.

“What is going on in here?” Muder God shouted.

“Science!” Ezra shouted back.

“The dishwasher is not meant to be used for science!”

“We’re not using it for science, we’re doing science on it!”

Murder God fumbled for words before simply asking “Why?” in exasperation.

“Cause we’re bored!” Hailey chimed in. “Look MG, I love video games n’ all, but even I have my limits.”

“Well stop messing with the dishwasher!”

“Why?”

“Cause it’s annoying!”

“Hold up.” Ezra interrupted. “You can tell when the dishwasher,” he wiggled his fingers at it, “does it’s thing?”

“Yes. What, did you think it did that all by itself?”

“Yeah pretty much.”

“Well it doesn’t, and I would really appreciate it if you all stopped putting random things in it!”

“But it’s fun!” Hailey complained.

Murder God puffed up, but Junior interrupted before anyone could say anything else. “All right, all right. How about we stop,” Ezra and Hailey started to protest, “ _ IF _ . you tell us how it actually works.”

“And let us put stuff in it sometimes,” Ezra quickly added on.

Murder God glared at them. “Fine. I’ll tell you how it works, and you’ll stop putting stuff in it until I say you can.”

“Sounds good to me,” Hailey said.

“Good. So basically I, being an all-powerful being and all, know when one of you puts something in the dishwasher. When you do that I just erase everything inside it from existence and make a new whatever-it-was-you-put-in-there where its supposed to be. Are we good?”

Ezra looked at the dishwasher and said, “Yup. That’s pretty much all I wanted to know.”

“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do than explain a dishwasher to you,” and she snapped away as quickly as she came.

“Well that was fun while it lasted,” Junior said.

“Guess I’m back to video games,” Hailey lamented. They turned to Ezra, only to find him pulling out the biggest bottle he could from the fridge.

“Dude. She just said doing that annoyed her, and she’s already pretty annoyed. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”   
“Come on, just one more thing!” Ezra pleaded, even though he already had his hand on the handle. But the door didn’t open. 

Hailey laughed. “The ketchup gremlin used a child lock on us!” Junior sighed in relief, and chuckled.

“Ugh. Party pooper!” Ezra shouted into the void.


End file.
